Abstract The Behavioral Medicine Research Council (BMRC) is a recently-formed, autonomous joint committee of four of the leading behavioral medicine research organizations, including the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research (ABMR), the Society for Health Psychology (SfHP), the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM), and the American Psychosomatic Society (APS). Its mission is to identify and prioritize strategic research goals in behavioral medicine and to encourage multidisciplinary, multicenter research networks to pursue them. The members of the BMRC are senior scientists with extensive leadership experience in behavioral medicine. The BMRC commissions expert writing groups to produce scientific statements on major preclinical and clinical research goals and encourages the formation of multidisciplinary research networks to pursue these goals. Most BMRC statements will pertain to behavioral or psychosocial risk factors for the onset or progression of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, pulmonary disease, or other chronic or life-threatening conditions. The statements will be co-published in several of the leading journals in the field. The research initiatives are expected to culminate in large, multicenter, randomized controlled trials with behavioral or psychosocial targets of intervention and clinically important outcomes such as disease onset, hospitalization, morbidity, or mortality. The research networks will also be encouraged to proceed from positive RCTs to effectiveness, dissemination, and implementation research. The BMRC?s cumulative portfolio is expected to span primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention; various disorders and health outcomes; an array of behavioral and psychosocial factors; and a diverse set of at-risk populations across a range of settings. The BMRC conference is planned for September 6-7, 2018 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Washington DC. The meeting will convene the BRMC, the Presidents and other officers of the constituent organizations, and other thought leaders, advisors, and stakeholders. The participants will examine the factors that the BMRC considers in identifying and prioritizing strategic research goals, and the approaches that it relies on to encourage the behavioral medicine research community to pursue and achieve these goals. The program will include both presentations and moderated discussions. The first day will focus on strategic research goals, with sessions pertaining to 1) promoting strategic research in behavioral medicine, 2) evaluating determinants of strategic research goals, and 3) incorporating multiple perspectives into research goal-setting. The second day will focus on the development of scientific statements and on ways to facilitate the formation, efforts, and persistence of research networks in behavioral medicine. The conference will help to identify some of the most important gaps in the behavioral medicine evidence base, ones that will require well-organized, large-scale, and persistent efforts to fill but that have substantial translational implications. The new directions discussed at the conference will be shared with the broader research community through presentations and publications.